Dirt Candy

Chef Amanda Cohen was an advocate of vegetable- and plant-based cooking long before it was cool, and her Lower East Side flagship continues to flourish as a pioneer in ethical eating with refined technique. Now, it enters an exciting new chapter in its long history. A single tasting menu yields a breadth of dishes that never masquerade as meat. A simple-seeming salad is anything but, with a blend of fresh and pickled iceberg lettuce with roasted celtuce, crispy puffed rice, and labneh that hits every mark. Then, a single yeasted donut is filled with a tomato, topped with smoked feta, and finished with concassé cherry tomatoes for an inventive take on a single ingredient. Dessert, too, follows in the same imaginative vein, with savory onions making their way into sweet dishes. A meal of this caliber is a true experience, and guests are sure to leave feeling nourished.

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